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Transplanting Madison Square Garden

By Eleanor Randolph March 28, 2013 5:12 pmMarch 28, 2013 5:12 pm

Richard Perry/The New York TimesPenn Station during early morning rush hour.

Anybody who takes a hard look at the ill-fated marriage of Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City eventually comes to the same conclusion. We will have to untangle these two giant structures if there is any hope of converting Manhattan’s depressing subterranean transit hub into an economic and cultural plus for the Northeast region. And the first crucial step will be finding a suitable new home for Madison Square Garden, now perched directly on top of the station.

This week, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer did his part to make such progress possible. He formally advised city officials to deny Madison Square Garden’s request to stay put “in perpetuity.” Instead, Mr. Stringer wants the city’s planning commission and the City Council to extend the arena’s permit for only ten more years. That should give government and business leaders the time needed to find an agreeable new site for the Garden and to start planning a less gloomy, more efficient Pennsylvania Station.
Mr. Stringer’s report argues that the original permit for the arena was limited to 50 years for a very good reason. Planners were concerned that Penn Station might someday need to expand. Even in 1963, city officials recognized it would be difficult for the station to develop with the Garden squatting on top of it.

City planners were right: Back then, there were 200,000 passengers a day; now, more than 600,000 riders of Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit elbow their way through the crowded underground corridors. Those numbers are only going up.

Mr. Stringer also wants a master plan to chart comprehensive changes in and around Pennsylvania Station — something the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried decades ago. He suggested moving the station across Eighth Avenue to theFarley Post Office, and nearly succeeded at the end of the Clinton administration. Versions of that proposal have been kicking around ever since.

The city’s not short on ideas, but real change will remain elusive if Madison Square Garden sits on Pennsylvania Station “in perpetuity.”